How Kim Kardashian Helped Develop ‘Kim Kardashian: Hollywood’

Lately, Kim Kardashian has made headlines for different reasons than the usual celebrity-tabloid fodder. Her mobile app/game, “Kim Kardashian: Hollywood,” has become a surprise hit of the summer. It’s so popular, the game maker, Glu Mobile, has seen a sharp rise in its stock.

In a story called “Why the Kim Kardashian Game Is Legitimately Good,” New York Magazine’s Vulture dedicated a lengthy analysis not of the company but the game’s merits. Thousands of five star reviews don the app’s download site since its release on June 24. Which means Kim Kardashian has come out of nowhere to become a major force in the app world, both from a commercial and critical stance. As fascinating as this was, one wonders how much she was actually involved in the making of “Hollywood.”

It would certainly be easy to license her name and brand to Glu and let them run to digital download heaven. Turns out, she was quite involved and still is.

“Kim’s been great to work with,” Glu CEO Niccolo De Masi says from the company’s San Francisco offices. About 18 months ago, he pitched the idea to her and it quickly blossomed.

“She and I probably exchanged three emails a day and chat weekly. She’s approved every item of clothing [used in the game], we discuss features, we discuss events, updates, etcetera. She’s reviewed all the [production] milestones, from alpha to beta, final gold master. It was something she caught on quite quickly – the power of her brand and social following would probably be a really good fit with this type of game.”

The goal of “Kim Kardashian: Hollywood” is to take a young man or woman who’s just landed in L.A. and successfully navigate the world of Hollywood until the player becomes a branded celebrity. And Kim is there to help all along the way, even down to the voice. “We recorded [her] in a studio,” De Masi assures me. “No one has ever done that.”

The game itself is free, but in-app purchases help monetize it – which can help players progress more quickly. The biggest seller is “Energy,” which is depleted as your character performs in-game tasks. Once players run out of energy, they must wait 90 minutes or buy more on the spot.

Other popular Glu games have nothing to do with reality TV stars; instead, they’re mostly male oriented titles like “Robocop” and “Deer Hunter,” clearly aimed at a young male audience. But De Masi saw the power of the Kardashian brand and her social following as particularly attractive.

“Gaming is such a wonderful interaction with her fans, to play a part in a version of what her world is,” he says. “When you’re not watching the TV show, they get their Kim world whenever they want. I think that’s the really powerful thing that’s resonating everywhere.”

Kardashian’s representative didn’t respond to interview requests about “Hollywood,” but De Masi continued on about the game’s possibilities now that they’ve tapped into the Kardashian cash stream. Is their a future in Kardashian mobile enterprises? Is a sequel already in the works? Will there be a hybrid mega-branded version called “Kim Kardashian: Star Wars,” just like “Angry Birds” did? If so, it’s not on the horizon.

“What matters most is making sure we keep updating [this game] and satiating what the fan demand is now,” he says. “The top grossing games can stay up in the charts as long as they’re updated successfully, to keep the experience live, fresh and exciting. That’s what the focus is now: how we can keep the audience happy without putting something out there that competes with them.”

Still, the next logical step has to be a game with Kardashian’s husband, rapper Kanye West. In suggesting this, De Massi doesn’t scoff at it and actually bats around ideas for a game involving building a media empire, with a built-in Kanye vernacular coach. It doesn’t sound half bad.

“We think about music, we think about sports – there’s a lot of different types of brand that we could do something with,” he says. “And [Kim’s] game is a very, rich holistic experience.”

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Speakeasy is a blog covering media, entertainment, celebrity and the arts. The publication is produced by Barbara Chai and Jonathan Welsh with contributions from the Wall Street Journal staff and others. Write to us at speakeasy@wsj.com or follow us on Twitter at @WSJSpeakeasy or individually @barbarachai.